Stockton startup businesses get a lift

Wednesday

May 21, 2014 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - A one-time grant is helping Stockton-area businesses receive a wide range of free business consulting services and assistance in a bid to help heal a local economy still recovering from the housing crisis and the Great Recession.

Reed Fujii

STOCKTON - A one-time grant is helping Stockton-area businesses receive a wide range of free business consulting services and assistance in a bid to help heal a local economy still recovering from the housing crisis and the Great Recession.

The Restore Stockton Project is being offered by the Small Business Development Center at San Joaquin Delta College in cooperation with the city and a number of area business groups, center Director Nate McBride said.

"Every year, the (U.S.) Small Business Administration has a small amount of money that they provide where areas have had some kind of extraordinary challenges. In many instances, it would be related to some kind of natural disaster," he said.

"In our case, we submitted the proposal based on Stockton being ground zero for the real estate decline, foreclosure mess, a little bit for the Stockton city bankruptcy and dramatic economic declines in small business (during the recession)."

As a result, the project now has up to $50,000 to expend on a variety of services, including one-on-one consulting; business troubleshooting; expansion assessment; business planning; marketing development; financial management; finding and securing new financing; and a mystery shopper program, which provides a detailed report on a business's services, products and other aspects from a customer's point of view.

SBDC experts can also provide advice on government contracting and international trade.

There is an increasing need for these types of services, McBride said.

"Business is certainly at the point where we're coming off the bottom and beginning to grow a little bit," he said.

"For the people so far that we've talked to, marketing and financing to grow are probably two of the most common things we're talking about and trying to provide resources for," McBride said.

Besides one-on-one services, the SBA grant also may help underwrite a class or two for small-business owners and managers.

In all, McBridge said he hopes the Restore Stockton Project will be able to help 75 to 100 businesses in some way.

While the SBDC has long offered a variety of advisory services, businesses involved in the special project can look to tap as many as seem appropriate.

"We're trying to look at businesses a little more holistically," McBride said.